In the fruit growing industry, particularly that which involves the production of relatively heavy fruit items such as melons, grapefruit and cantaloupe, there is a continuing need for a paperboard carton or container which has a bottom which may be formed from the flap parts of the carton blank with the flap parts interrelated in such a way that they may be quickly and securely locked together in the usual container hand-forming process without gluing, stapling, or other extraneous mechanical means.
For this purpose there have been developed various forms of carton parts including side wall and end wall bottom flaps which have various forms of tabs which can be inserted into openings in related flaps which are arranged to receive them. Examples are afforded by U.S. Pat. No. 5,104,035 issued to Booth and Austrian Patent 218,420 issued in 1961 to Stoklasek. But nothing has been done adequately to interlock the flaps and their respective tabs in place relative to each other by means provided solely by the shapes of the various parts and without the need or use of extraneous fastening means.
Accordingly the primary object of this invention is to provide a one-piece carton blank formed and arranged in such manner that when the blank is assembled into a carton the bottom parts may be easily brought together and securely locked so that accidental withdrawal and disassembly is prevented in spite of any weight of the contents or rough handling of the cartons in transportation and use and so that any intended disassembly can only be accomplished by careful manipulation of the parts.